


to be this close, to feel the same

by chasingforeverandaday



Series: forest love, forest lass [2]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst, Bickering, F/M, Fluff, Making Out, Post-Coital Cuddling, and in a bed, because I think those are just my gendrya tags now, because reasons, somehow they ended up arguing which was not the direction I thought this was going, they're naked basically the whole time, while there is no smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-26 21:43:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18725563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chasingforeverandaday/pseuds/chasingforeverandaday
Summary: Arya and Gendry get to have a (mostly) quiet moment together after the battle.AKA: I needed to post this before watching tonight's episode, which will inevitably blow holes in the whole thing.





	to be this close, to feel the same

**Author's Note:**

> Meant to post this before today, but school is a thing that I have to deal with and I couldn't ignore its existence forever. This is what I wanted after last week and did my best to write most of it prior to all the spoilers that came out today. I think most of my GoT fics are going to fall into the category of "canonish, but with more emoting" so I've made them a series. You don't have to read the previous to understand this one at all, it just might help you understand where I'm coming from as an author. Also, wasn't sure what the rating should be, since they're naked pretty much the whole time, but the sex doesn't actually happen in this fic.
> 
> This work has not been betaed, so all grammar is on me. Title comes from "All I Want" by Toad the Wet Sprocket, which is the most hilarious name ever.

Curled up in the warmth of the forge, Arya relishes every rise and fall of Gendry’s chest against her cheek, a continual reassurance that they have both made it through hell, that they’re both _alive_. She’d first seen him over her brother’s shoulder, scanning the courtyard, eyes darting among all those who made it through the battle. Arya could tell the instant he’d seen her, his gaze frozen on hers before a grin stretched its way across his face. Much as she just wanted Gendry to hold her right then and there, she shook her head minutely when he started to pick his way towards her. She needed to find her sister before allowing herself to get lost in his arms. Fortunately, he’d seemed to understand and motioned to the somehow still standing forge, an invitation to come to him later, when she could sneak away.

Hours later, she stepped into the quiet building to find Gendry stoking a small fire, not the blaze she was accustomed to seeing in here. Somehow, he heard her approach, whether because she was too exhausted to care about walking silently or simply because he knew her footsteps. But he turned and looked at her with that silly grin, one that surely matched the one on her own face, stalking towards her and lifting her into his arms, as if Arya weighed no more than a feather.

Neither of them had taken the time to clean up much, simply stripped away their sodden clothes and briefly wiped their faces of dried gore and mud before colliding in a desperate tangle of limbs and teeth. He’d taken her against the wall of his forge, cold stone at her back, his hands taking care to warm every shivering part of her. It had been hard and fast and perfect, she’d never felt so very alive as in that moment, with him. After, they’d collapsed onto his bed, huddling together naked under Gendry’s cloak again, Arya lying entirely on top of him once they realize just how unsuited his cot was for two people to share.

His voice breaks the silence, rumbling in her ear. “At some point we’ll have to move.” Shifting to glance at his face, Arya can tell that the notion doesn’t actually appeal to him, only to his sense of honor and duty. One would think that after bedding her (again) those thoughts would have flown out the window, but without them, would he truly be her Gendry anymore?

Smiling softly to herself, she squirms further into his chest, nuzzling the skin beneath her cheek. “Whenever the urge to do so strikes you, feel free to let me know. Personally I’m perfectly comfortable right here. And besides... ” Her fingers begin to dance over his body, cataloguing every inch of skin she can reach as she decides that learning her lover is the best use of her time right now. “…I don’t really think you want to leave this bed either.” Her hands move further down his chest, swirling through the light hair covering his stomach before reaching down to caress his cock beneath her leg.

Arya feels more than hears him take a deep breath, the hand not wrapped around her shoulders coming down to grasp her wandering digits and press them firmly to his lips, stopping her attempts at distraction. Smirking impishly in his direction, she removes her fingers from his hold and props herself up just enough to cover his mouth with her own, drawing him into a soft kiss. Gendry opens up to her immediately, letting her lead as she arches into him like a cat, kneading herself into his skin.

It goes on like that for a few moments until he pulls away again, quietly mumbling her name. Groaning, Arya chooses to focus on his neck, sucking on the clean spot just under his jaw, marking him as hers so all to see. Though she is intent on driving him to distraction, he seems just as focused on not being swayed from his goal, gently removing her from his pulse point as she pouted up at him. With a small smile, he kissed her forehead before settling her back onto his chest, arms firmly wrapped around her to prevent any more wandering.

Drumming her trapped fingers lightly against his skin, Arya turned her head to stare up at him again, finding his eyes already looking down at her. “You’re no fun.”

He snorted at that blatantly untrue accusation. “I’m very fun M’lady; I’m also exhausted and don’t need you starting something I can’t finish.” Raking his stare slowly down what little of her body he could see, Gendry moved a hand down to her arse and gave it a playful squeeze. “And I would truly feel terrible if we couldn’t finish.”

Eyebrow cocked, she smirked up at him before grinding into his abs. “Oh, I’m sure you could rally if I gave you the right incentive.”  
“I’m sure you could…” His voice trailed off as the smile on his face grew less salacious, more tender. He leaned closer again to press a closed mouth peck on her lips, leaving her to chase after him once he broke the contact, foreheads still brushing. “But right now, if we’re not heading back to the keep, we need to rest. Don’t think I didn’t realize that you never fell asleep last night.”

“There was an army of the dead marching on us, I couldn’t waste any time sleeping, nor do I have no idea how you actually slept.”

“It wasn’t all that bad.”

Incredulous, she could only look up at him in confusion. “We were on sacks of grain in a storeroom and I was half on top of you! How in the hells was that comfortable?”

“We’ve slept on worse, remember Harrenhal? And in any case, that wasn’t what I meant, exactly.” He made a face, seemingly annoyed at himself for revealing that much, and moved his head, avoiding her gaze. Arya batted away the arms caging her in, climbing back up his body so they could be face to face, so she could look into his eyes and see if he’d try to lie, not that he had, not to her. But some habits are hard to break, even if she wanted to.

“Well then what did you mean, exactly?”

Gendry took a slow, deep breath before focusing his blue eyes back on hers. “I meant you.”

“Me?” He’s not lying, but how could… “I don’t understand.”

“I mean I’ve never slept as well as when you’ve been beside me, because then I know you’re safe, or at least with me.” His hands reach up to stroke her face, lingering on the stitched up gash in her forehead. “You’re my family m’lady, you’re all I have. Knowing that you’re there, it feels right.”

Flashing back to a desperate, heartbroken girl from years ago, she grimaces at him, wrenching away from him to sit up as fresh pain wells up at the memory. “I thought I couldn’t be your family, that I was your lady?” He follows, bolting upright to lean into her and gather her in his embrace as he whispers in her ear, breath hot against her neck.

“Gods, I was a stupid boy then, didn’t know how to tell you I was scared of what would happen. Thought because I was older and a man that I had to take care of you, but that I couldn’t if we went to your family, because you’d have your brother to watch over you. Didn’t know what my place would be at the Twins, from what you said your mother sure as hell wouldn’t have let us go on as we were.” He pauses, probably to rearrange his thoughts, but it’s the only opening she needs to argue back.

“I’ve never needed anyone to watch out for me, and you well know that Gendry Waters, I’ve no idea why you’ve ever thought differently.” Finger jabbing into his chest, she rants at him, letting all the pent up frustration of years of abandonment and everyone assuming they knew better than her come out in a tirade. “You of all people should know I can take care of myself!”

Eyes blazing, he catches her hand on the next prod, dragging her body flush to his. Harshly, he retorts, “Because even then you were all I cared about! I may not have been in love with you then, but I loved you, gods I loved you so much! And all you tell me is that I can smith for your brother? You broke my heart just as much as I broke yours that night, don’t think any differently.” Panting heavily, they stare at each other, caught up in an argument from years ago, emotions running rampant, out of her control. But before she can rage right back at him, all the fury seems to go out of him. Quietly, he adds, “I had to leave you before you left me.”

And she stops. Because it makes sense. Because maybe he did have a reason, maybe she’s meant as much to him as he has always meant to her. Maybe losing each other was what set them on their paths back to each other, but gods if she could go back and shake her younger self, she would. Because this man has always been there for her, even when she didn’t think she wanted him to be. And this realization is simply too much right now, on top of everything else that’s gone wrong in the past few days.

When she starts to tremble, he draws her in closer, all anger forgotten as he moves to cradle the girl he loves. She fights him, because of course she does, she wouldn’t be her if she let herself be coddled. Glaring up through stormy eyes, she tries to make him understand. “Gendry, all I want is to be here, with you. That’s all I wanted then, that’s all I want now.  In here, with you, in this bed, I’m just your Arya. Not the girl who killed the Night King.”

“You’ve never been _just_ anything to me.”

“Exactly! You call me M’lady and Lady Stark. You think of yourself as below me, and gods, you aren’t Gendry. You can’t be. You’re the one person I can trust to watch my back, to not betray me.” She grasps one of his hands in hers and entwines their fingers. A minute passes, and then she breathes her truth into the air between them. “I picked you and you’re mine. You’re my Gendry and I’m your Arya.”

He looks like a startled horse, mouth moving and no words coming out. She almost  into his shoulder laughs before he finally regains himself. “You can’t mean that, I’m just a bastard blacksmith, and you’re the Bringer of the Dawn. It doesn’t make any sense, you were meant for greater things than me.”

“And I think you should stop arguing and let me decide what and who I deserve, you stubborn bull.” Softly, she pulls his forehead back to hers. “Gendry.” A blatant stare, a challenge to accept the heart laid out in her palm.

“M’lady.” It’s so familiar, this deferential teasing, him unwilling to abandon all his courtesies even here, with her naked in his arms. But they need to move past this, they need to move forwards.

“ _Gendry_.” Pleading, daring him to hope for a future when they can be themselves without a care in the world. Because while she may not know precisely what the future holds after she finishes her list, she wants him standing right beside her.

She sees a faint smile grace his lips before he leans in, a heartbeat away from her own. “ _Arya_.” It’s a whisper, a confession, a declaration. She launches herself back at his mouth, kissing him until he can feel nothing but her, his Arya, because in this moment, nothing else matters.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I left myself room to maneuver with whatever is happening tonight, but who the fuck knows. This series is basically going to be close to canon, but tweaked as I see fit. Because I can.


End file.
